Tuesday, November 22, 2011

In the world of Wikipedia "was" is a word you don't want to see if you are in business or doing anything generally. Quick as a flash, if you stop doing anything you are a "was" as opposed to an "is". Wikipedia proudly announces that "Astraeus, trading as Astraeus Airlines, was a British airline based at Astraeus House in Crawley, West Sussex, England". It only happened yesterday, but history is always in the making on Wikipedia.

Now Astraeus Airlines had something about it. It was an airline famous, or sort of so, for having the lead singer of rock band Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, as an Astraeus pilot and as marketing director. One wonders if small airlines can survive in this market of today, even with famous faces fronting them. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has said he is setting up a new airline called Fastjet. This is partly because he is miffed about the current goings-on at Easyjet, over which he has no longer much control - only influence.

Will Fastjet take to the skies? Who knows? All I know is that with airlines collapsing or merging, competition will be thin on the ground and even thinner in the air. Positive competition is good for consumers. There's choice and the companies get to do things better hopefully. So if Stelios gets Fastjet flying, that's good news.

About Me

Here is a 60 year-old looking at the world and its daily happenings. Expressing a view on interesting, topical, and controversial things and hoping my posts and opinions find favour with a wider audience. Having some experience of life - travelled here, been there! Looking forward to learning a lot more!